Parental Leave and Bonus(es) Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know this must work differently depending on the firm, but I'm curious how parental leave impacts bonus(es)? I'm at a traditional NY market-paying lockstep firm (no hours requirement for bonuses), and am set to go on parental leave soon. Do firms generally pay full bonus(es) as long as you take no more than the allowed parental leave, or do they prorate your bonus(es) for how many days/weeks/months off you take?

Any insight would be very much appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

I know this must work differently depending on the firm, but I'm curious how parental leave impacts bonus(es)? I'm at a traditional NY market-paying lockstep firm (no hours requirement for bonuses), and am set to go on parental leave soon. Do firms generally pay full bonus(es) as long as you take no more than the allowed parental leave, or do they prorate your bonus(es) for how many days/weeks/months off you take?

Any insight would be very much appreciated.

My experience (V50, major non NYC) has been your actual hours are prorated to true up to what you likely would have billed, and you then get a bonus that is prorated on time out of the office. For example, you're out 6 months and you were on track for a regular, full bonus, you'd get a 50% bonus.

[Anonymous User]

I’m at V25, non-NYC HQed firm, out on my firm’s full 5 months of paternity leave, and yes my firm’s year-end bonuses prorate for time out on parental leave.

Still worth it

[Anonymous User]

My firm (V5) prorates in the way mentioned my a poster above. The only difference is if your leave splits across class years. So, if you hit billable target in October (which is pretty common) and go on leave in nov/dec you obviously get a full bonus, and then next years bonus is prorated only if you again don’t make your hours given the leave. There has been talk in recent months to change the policy and give a 100% bonus regardless of hours worked/proration, for birth mothers out for 6 months or so, under the theory that it’s too much of a financial hit to take half the bonus away from them and that they should really be entitled to full year.

[Anonymous User]

V25 firm with hours target. Pro-rated hours target --> pro-rated bonus. E.g., if you take off 3 months and the baseline hours target is 2000 for a 100k bonus, you have a 1500h target for a 75k bonus.

[Anonymous User]

[deleted]

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a firm with no billable minimum, took the full amount of leave, and got a full bonus.

[hdr]

I also had a prorated hours target (1500) and a prorated bonus (75%). I was actually not on track to even bill 1500 but I ended up doing ~100 hours of work while on "leave" that got me over the finish line.

[Anonymous User]

Morgan Lewis is 100% bonus with sufficient hours applied to your total while you are out (including some applied while you are still in to account for ramping down and back up).

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a firm with no billable minimum, took the full amount of leave, and got a full bonus.

OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. My firm also has no hours requirement (similar to this person). Would be curious to hear from folks at firms with no hours requirement how they treat your bonus? E.g., if you take 3/12 months out of the year off, do you get 75% of the bonus? Seems inequitable if you still bill like 1900 hours in those 9 months (notwithstanding the lack of target), but on the other hand, also seems like a windfall to get full bonus if you only bill 1500 in those 9 months.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a firm with no billable minimum, took the full amount of leave, and got a full bonus.

OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. My firm also has no hours requirement (similar to this person). Would be curious to hear from folks at firms with no hours requirement how they treat your bonus? E.g., if you take 3/12 months out of the year off, do you get 75% of the bonus? Seems inequitable if you still bill like 1900 hours in those 9 months (notwithstanding the lack of target), but on the other hand, also seems like a windfall to get full bonus if you only bill 1500 in those 9 months.

I am the poster you quoted. I got the full bonus with something like 1600 hours for 9 1/2 months. There are no cutoffs that would have resulted in me getting less than a full bonus. At my firm, my understanding is that you only do not get a full bonus if you are being pushed out.

[almostperfectt]

Have you asked HR what the policy is? Or consult the lawyer's manual at your firm. They probably have an established policy and knowledge of that policy will be infinitely more useful to you than market trends generally

[Anonymous User]

This is entirely dependent on firm. I was at one firm where I had a pro-rated target and a pro-rated bonus. I was also at another that had a pro-rated target but a full bonus if you hit that pro-rated target. (Sounds like the former is more common, though.)

[Anonymous User]

Check with HR. I thought my firm was prorated target and bonus, but in filling out the paperwork ahead of my leave it was explicitly spelled out that the target hours would be prorated but full bonus if the prorated target was met.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a firm with no billable minimum, took the full amount of leave, and got a full bonus.

OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. My firm also has no hours requirement (similar to this person). Would be curious to hear from folks at firms with no hours requirement how they treat your bonus? E.g., if you take 3/12 months out of the year off, do you get 75% of the bonus? Seems inequitable if you still bill like 1900 hours in those 9 months (notwithstanding the lack of target), but on the other hand, also seems like a windfall to get full bonus if you only bill 1500 in those 9 months.

at my firm, if you have a pulse when bonuses are paid you get your full bonus regardless of any leave taken (or low hours) during the year.